Salomon Silber

Salomon Silber was born on May 12, 1868 in the Lower Franconian municipality of Mainstockheim. His parents, the wine merchant Isaak Baruch Silber and his wife Karoline, were orthodox Jews. Salomon Silber moved to Würzburg and became an agent for life insurance policies. On September 24, 1894 he married Ida Falk. Between 1899 and 1910 the couple had six children. In 1899 the Silber family moved to Munich, moving into the ground-floor apartment at Bürkleinstraße 16 (today 20). The building was owned by Ida Silber and her siblings. For almost 30 years Salomon Silber was secretary to the chevra kadisha, the Jewish burial association steeped in tradition. He was particularly involved in looking after the dying in the Jewish hospital in Ludwigsvorstadt. Salomon Silber’s daughter Karola moved to Palestine as early as the 1920s and started a family there. The oldest daughter, Centa Gitl Silber, remained with her parents in Bürkleinstraße and worked as the secretary of the Jewish community. She died on November 25, 1937. Salomon Silber fell severely ill and died just a few months after his daughter on April 21, 1938. He was buried at the New Jewish Cemetery in Munich. The eulogy was given by Dr. Joseph Armschutz, doctor and founder of the association “Krankenheim Israelitische Privatklinik e.V.,” the hospital where Salomon Silber had done so much for the dying patients. Salomon Silber’s wife Ida was deported to Theresienstadt ghetto on July 15, 1942. She died there on February 27, 1943 as a result of the appalling conditions. The family’s three sons survived the Shoah. Siegfried and Bruno Silber emigrated to Palestine in 1933. Dr. Fritz Silber was able to escape to the United States with his family in 1941. (text Felicia Englmann, editor C. Fritsche, translation P. Bowman)